Exploring life after the kids are grown

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Country sights….and smells

I love living in the country, really I do. When we moved here from suburbia, my family and I concocted a little ditty on our cross country car trip from there to here.

We sang it to the tune of the old TV show theme song, “Green Acres.” Oldest daughter wasn’t too sure about leaving the suburbs behind for life in the country, so our song went something like this:

[Mama & Papa sing] “The country is the place to be,

Country livin’ is the life for me,

Land spreadin’ out so far wide,

Keep that shopping mall,

Give me that countryside.”

[Oldest Daughter sings] “The ‘burbs are where I’d rather stay,

I don’t know how to rake in hay,

I just adore the city view,

Daddy, I love you but give me Murray Avenue.”

[Papa sings] “Fresh air!”

[Oldest Daughter sings] “Washington Square!”

[Papa] “You are my daughter.”

[Oldest Daughter] “Goodbye, city water!”

[Everyone] “The country we are there. Da-dum, da-da dum, dum dum!”

Our family, including all three children, adjusted quite well to life beyond the ‘burbs, even if oldest daughter was a little frightened by cows when she trained for her cross-country season running on country roads. And when we finally built our new home, we managed to acquire city water!

I reminisced about our move here just the other morning because we mark our 13th anniversary of living in the country at the end of this month. That milestone makes this place the abode where hubby and I have lived the longest ever in our married life. Like a well-seated tree, the roots burrow down pretty deep now.

So when I awakened early just the other day, I paused for a minute before I began my morning routine. The evening before had been cool and we slept with our bedroom windows wide open. I always sleep well when fresh air wafts into the room.

That morning, sunshine poured through the windows, and I could hear the serenade of several birds singing their good morning song. As I listened, their melodies were the only audible sound. No traffic. No noisy trucks, no honking horns, no loud people, just song birds. What a lovely way to wake up!

While I sipped my morning cup of tea in our breakfast nook, the view out our back windows provided a lush landscape greeting my sight. No tall buildings, no houses, no sidewalks or streets. Just leafy trees, a verdant hillside and a farmer’s field. Flowers in brilliant bloom in our yard added to the assortment of a colorful feast for my eyes as well.

Driving to work that morning, I cranked open my car windows and that’s when I caught a whiff of a delicious odor – the indescribable smell of freshly mown hay. Yes, there he was – the farmer driving his tractor over the field, performing the first hay cutting of the season, hay that will be gathered up into large round bales later and will dot the meadows.

Summer time has arrived in the country, even if the calendar doesn’t say so. Mornings like these which evoke such feelings of bliss make it seem like all is right with the world. That is, until I caught another distinct odor – road kill, and in this case the most smelly kind – a skunk.

And that reminds me of another song. Anyone ready for a round of “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road?”

Ah, life in the country….in my Opportunity book, Chapter 6, Page 9, I wouldn’t have it any other way.